RISE: Celebrating Women, Community Love and Leadership, is an event for all women to unapologetically celebrate and honor the work and contributions given by women to our communities. RISE is about highlighting the endeavors and efforts of our women leaders, especially queer women and women of color, as well as appreciating, as a community, the daily functioning, striving and travail of all women as we give to each others lives and rise together.

About our theme:

Although many saw O’Keefe’s revolutionary flower paintings as representative of the female experience with a connotation of biological determinism, at the core, her flowers were beautiful no matter what the viewer chose to project onto them when reading into her work. Every woman is different, just as all flowers are different, and we want to acknowledge and celebrate all who experience life through the lens of woman in body, spirit, identity - past, present, future, and fluid.

In the past decades, new emerging gazes have continually added diverse meanings to her works. By acknowledging the past understandings of her work and following the innovating legacy, in saying "No Matter the Flower", we seek to explore the transformative power brought by members in our communities who embrace and traverse new consciousness, boundaries and identities, take initiatives, and keep re-defining themselves, the community, and women’s leadership.

The event will include a dinner and an award ceremony honoring campus and community women, as well as performances and speakers throughout. Please join us! Everyone welcome!

We welcome all who experience life through the lens of woman in body, spirit, identity - past, present, future, and fluid.